cannabisnews.com: Filing Propels Dispute Over Medical Pot





Filing Propels Dispute Over Medical Pot
Posted by CN Staff on July 14, 2005 at 06:51:51 PT
By Josh Richman, Staff Writer
Source: Oakland Tribune
California -- Medical marijuana advocates are mounting a double-barreled attack this week on what they say is California's reticence to uphold its own compassionate use law, putting Attorney General Bill Lockyer in the hot seat. On one front, Oakland-based Americans For Safe Access filed papers Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court seeking an injunction to halt the California Highway Patrol's policy of seizing marijuana from qualified patients, even if those patients have county-issued ID cards or a doctor's recommendation.
The ASA says the CHP blatantly ignores a state Supreme Court decision that said an officer's probable cause to seize marijuana depends on facts such as presentation of documents identifying the person as a qualified patient. It also notes that Lockyer — whose office defends the CHP in this lawsuit — issued a formal opinion June 23 saying cities can prohibit their police from seizing medical marijuana but can't automatically seize marijuana from or arrest people who don't have voluntary ID cards because that would directly contradict state law. "The CHP policy of seizing marijuana from qualified patients even when they present a valid identification card is even more at odds with state law, since no amount of proof can avoid a mandatory seizure," the ASA's filing says. And the filing says the CHP ignores bulletins Lockyer issued to California law enforcement agencies lastmonth after a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the federal marijuana ban. In those bulletins, Lockyer wrote that California's law still stands and police should avoid making seizures and arrests when it seems someone is legitimately using a medically authorized, reasonable amount of marijuana under state law. So who's right, the lawyer or the client? Lockyer spokeswoman Teresa Schilling would only say Wednesday that the attorney general is duty-bound to defend the state and its agencies against lawsuits; she referred further questions to the CHP. CHP spokesman Lt. Joe Whiteford said the CHP will honor only the 123 voluntarily-sought medical marijuana identification cards issued so far by the Department of Health Services under a 2003 state law. Officers will keep seizing marijuana from anyone else. He wouldn't comment on the apparent conflict with Lockyer's bulletins. Meanwhile, two other national groups — the Drug Policy Alliance and the American Civil Liberties Union — wrote to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday with a threat to sue the state for suspending the very ID card program the CHP says it's honoring. The ID card program was just about to expand from a four-county test run to statewide implementation. But state Health Services Director Sandra Shewry last week halted it, saying the need for Lockyer to confirm that employees who issue the cards won't be subject to federal prosecution following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The DPA and ACLU also cite Lockyer's bulletins that state officials "may not refuse to abide by the provisions of the Compassionate Use Act on the basis that this Act conflicts with federal law." DPA legal director Daniel Abrahamson of Oakland said it's "shameful" that court action might be needed to force the state to honor its own laws. The groups' letter said they'll sue if the ID card program isn't reinstated by the close of business Tuesday. Schilling said Wednesday that Lockyer's office is working "as fast as we can" to issue an opinion on the program. Note: Compassionate use law is put to the test.Source: Oakland Tribune (CA)Author: Josh Richman, Staff WriterPublished: July 14, 2005Copyright: 2005 MediaNews Group, Inc. Contact: triblet angnewspapers.com Website: http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:ACLUhttp://www.aclu.org/Drug Policy Alliancehttp://www.drugpolicy.org/Americans For Safe Accesshttp://www.safeaccessnow.org/California Medical Marijuana Program Haltedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20949.shtmlACLU and Drug Policy Alliance Threaten To Sue http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20948.shtml
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Comment #14 posted by jose melendez on July 15, 2005 at 18:30:35 PT
How can that be? Because they are fellow crooks!
Corrupt, Crooked Cops Get Off Easyhttp://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1118/a10.html?397
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on July 14, 2005 at 23:03:39 PT
How can that be legal?
 "...U.S. Code states that the ONDCP director 'shall' take action to oppose reforms of laws regarding marijuana."We have to pay our tax money to support something that uses more of our tax money to oppose our changing unjust laws?How can that be?
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Comment #12 posted by Hope on July 14, 2005 at 22:52:39 PT
An anti-democratic branch of government?
"Fox added, "It is beyond dispute that ONDCP Deputy Director Scott Burns actively opposed the initiative during campaign stops last October 13 and 14. Title 21, Section 1703(b)(12) of the U.S. Code states that the ONDCP director 'shall' take action to oppose reforms of laws regarding marijuana. Burns' trip and statements were in furtherance of this obligation, and ONDCP clearly spent thousands of tax dollars in the process -- expenses that unquestionably must be reported as campaign expenditures under Alaska law." It seems very unethical that such an office with such blatantly undemocratic "duties" should even exist in a democracy. It seems the ONDCP, itself, should be against the law if what it is supposed to do is actually block legal democratic reform of any law in a democracy or a democratic republic.
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Comment #11 posted by global_warming on July 14, 2005 at 16:44:13 PT
re:comment 10
"Remember, there was a time when they would not even debate us, "So true, this Cannabis Movement, has momentum, when Cannabis, will be accepted, in this world, on that day, we can celebrate, the emancipation, all the slaves in this world, will rejoice.gw
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Comment #10 posted by jose melendez on July 14, 2005 at 16:15:04 PT
global warming
they are responding to litigation, and the news covers court cases because they have free access to the proceedings.Remember, there was a time when they would not even debate us, certainly not with any integrity or much honesty. Now they are having to spend time making sure they are not ggoing to PRISON for approving or receiving federal funds based on FALSE CLAIMS, like the Ogilvy and Mather ONDCP conract exec:http://tinyurl.com/8hd6gA former executive of ad firm Ogilvy & Mather was sentenced on Thursday to 18 months in jail and instructed to write an ethics code for the ad industry for her role in a scheme to overbill the U.S. government.Shona Seifert, a former senior partner and executive group director at Ogilvy & Mather, was also ordered to pay a $125,000 fine for trying to overbill the government for work on a national anti-drug campaign, according to a clerk at the U.S. District Court for the southern district of New York.Judge Richard Berman also sentenced Seifert's co-defendant, Thomas Early, to 14 months in jail and a $10,000 fine.Seifert and Early, a former senior partner and finance director at Ogilvy in New York, were found guilty of conspiracy and false claims in February.http://www.jointogether.org/sa/news/summaries/reader/0%2C1854%2C577695%2C00.html ONDCP Ad Scandal Leads to Prison
7/14/2005
	
A former ad executive convicted of defrauding the federal government while working on public-service advertising for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has been sentenced to 14 months in prison and fined $10,000, Ad Age reported July 13.Thomas Early, a former finance director at Ogilvy & Mather, was sentenced for his role in inflating the hours charged to ONDCP for the media campaign. Shona Seifert, formerly an executive group director at the agency, was convicted of conspiracy and filing false claims back in 1999. Seifert is slated to be sentenced today.Ogilvy & Mather paid $1.8 million to settle civil charges in the case. Three other former agency employees have also pleaded guilty to charges related to their work on the ONDCP account, but have not yet been sentenced.http://tinyurl.com/eyp6eNEW YORK - Thomas Early, one of the former Ogilvy & Mather executives at the centre of the US anti-drugs account overbilling scandal, has been sentenced to 14 months in prison and fined $10,000 (£5,700).The sentence will also see him serving two years under supervision after he is released. He will begin his term on September 21.Early was formerly finance director at Ogilvy & Mather's New York office. He was tried for 10 counts of fraud relating to billing on the US government's anti-drugs advertising account alongside Shona Seifert, a former director of Ogilvy & Mather. In February, both were found guilty, despite pleading innocent to all charges. Seifert, who resigned from her role as president of TBWA\Chiat\Day New York on February 28, is due to be sentenced today.
Got Fraud?
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Comment #9 posted by global_warming on July 14, 2005 at 15:34:07 PT
re:comment 8
We have too many lawyers, and too much law.Accepting the "Rule of Law", with civilization, and being good citizens in this world, may be leading all of us, into some fragmented existence, that is slowly becoming, a beehive of commerce, and while that bottom line, can be quantified, to our most inner breath, that we breath, as a gift, from the aspects of our "universe".Can the owner of suffering come forth?Your children have been found, and they are waiting for for their parents...Luk 24:13 And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. Luk 24:14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. Luk 24:15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. Luk 24:16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. Luk 24:17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? Luk 24:18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? 
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Comment #8 posted by global_warming on July 14, 2005 at 15:08:09 PT
Re:Comment 5
"MPP Sues to Compel Investigation of Drug Czar's Campaign Spending JUNEAU, ALASKA -- The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) filed suit today seeking to force the Alaska Public Offices Commission to investigate the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP's) failure to make the legally required disclosure of campaign expenses against Ballot Measure 2 in Alaska last year."Paying more lawyers, to argue law, against "state" payed lawyers, is like shoveling shit against the ocean tides.gw
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on July 14, 2005 at 13:36:06 PT
Taylor
Thank you and I hope it helps too.
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Comment #6 posted by Taylor121 on July 14, 2005 at 13:25:01 PT
Link Fix
 http://www.mpp.org/WarOnDrugCzar/complaints.htmlHope some ground is made with these lawsuits this time around.
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Comment #5 posted by Taylor121 on July 14, 2005 at 13:21:13 PT
MPP sues
MPP Sues to Compel Investigation of Drug Czar's Campaign Spending
JUNEAU, ALASKA -- The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) filed suit today seeking to force the Alaska Public Offices Commission to investigate the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP's) failure to make the legally required disclosure of campaign expenses against Ballot Measure 2 in Alaska last year.According to the Alaska Statutes, "Every individual, person, nongroup entity, or group making an expenditure shall make a full report of expenditures" that are "made for the purpose of ... influencing the outcome of a ballot proposition or question." No such reports were filed by ONDCP. MPP brought this situation to the attention of the Public Offices Commission in February, but the complaint was dismissed in June.Today's suit, filed in the Superior Court for the State of Alaska, Third Judicial District, seeks a declaratory judgment stating that the rejection of the complaint against the drug czar was legally erroneous, and directing the Public Offices Commission to investigate the allegations in the complaint."Alaska law requires those who campaign for or against an initiative to disclose their expenditures," said Steve Fox, MPP director of government relations. "ONDCP publicly and actively campaigned against Ballot Measure 2, but failed to make the campaign finance disclosures required by law. We are disappointed that Alaska officials have thus far refused to enforce the state's own laws."Fox added, "It is beyond dispute that ONDCP Deputy Director Scott Burns actively opposed the initiative during campaign stops last October 13 and 14. Title 21, Section 1703(b)(12) of the U.S. Code states that the ONDCP director 'shall' take action to oppose reforms of laws regarding marijuana. Burns' trip and statements were in furtherance of this obligation, and ONDCP clearly spent thousands of tax dollars in the process -- expenses that unquestionably must be reported as campaign expenditures under Alaska law. Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that it is constitutional for Alaska to demand this reporting from the federal government."MPP filed a similar suit today in Montana. Both complaints are available at http://www.mpp.org/WarOnDrugCzar/complaints.html.With more than 17,000 members and 120,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP works to minimize the harm associated with marijuana -- both the consumption of marijuana and the laws that are intended to prohibit such use. MPP believes that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is imprisonment. For more information, see http://www.MarijuanaPolicy.org.
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on July 14, 2005 at 12:57:08 PT
kaptinemo
How can we trust them for the truth? I don't know how. I see on the news that Bush poll ratings are going down even more. How low has any president been in ratings I wonder? Will he be the lowest rated president ever? That wouldn't break my heart! LOL!
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Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on July 14, 2005 at 12:34:50 PT:
OT: NIH Finds Ethics Violations in 44 Cases
http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/07/14/nih.ethics.lapses.ap/index.html?section=cnn_latestOh, yes, we can *trust the government* to remain unbiased in medicinal cannabis research, of course we can! Their researchers don't have any conflicts of interset, nooooooo, they wouldn't falsify data in order to get a particular pharma passed when it's efficacy or safety is in question, naw, they wouldn't do that...(If you cannot detect the sarcasm dripping from these words and genuinely believe them, I have some oceanfront property on the Mojave Desert I'd like to sell you, real cheap...)
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Comment #2 posted by Gary Storck on July 14, 2005 at 09:01:20 PT
Great cover story about MMJ in WI in the Shepherd
This is fantastic!
The Politics of Pot Medical Marijuana Activists Are Just Getting Started
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Comment #1 posted by ekim on July 14, 2005 at 07:29:34 PT
the IND compassionate act for Cannabis 
was cut off when too many poor souls asked the Fed Gov't for access. Anyone have the exact wording on that event in 1992, i bet many of the poor souls that had asked to get on the program were from CA.
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